The reason I, as a liberal, will never support Rudy Giuliani

So by now we’ve all seen the highlight reels on the various evening shows; the GOP had a debate and needless to say, it was a train wreck. We’ve got a handy dandy transcript here thanks to the good people at the New York Times, so let’s take a look. Right off the bat, in typical Faux News (FOX Noise?) fashion, Chris Wallace gives us an idea of how things are going to play out.

Senator McCain, you say that you are willing to be the last man standing for U.S. involvement in Iraq. But the Iraqi government has failed to meet one political benchmark after another for political reform. Why should Americans continue to fight and die while Iraqi politicians continue to do so little?

This sets the stage pretty nicely. Us Americans are busting our humps to make Iraq a perfect, peaceful democracy, and those Iraqis just aren’t holding up their end of the deal! Poor management on our end, external influences, potential anti-American biases inherent in the nation itself, apparently these factors don’t exist. It all boils down to the Iraqi politicians not appreciating how hard we’re working.

Now, I’m not going to do what I did with the SOTU address and go through each and every quote. Instead I’ll highlight a bit here that definitely deserves more attention than I’ve seen it get. Forgive the long quote.

REP. PAUL: No. Non-intervention was a major contributing factor. Have you ever read the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we’ve been over there; we’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We’ve been in the Middle East — I think Reagan was right.

We don’t understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. So right now we’re building an embassy in Iraq that’s bigger than the Vatican. We’re building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting. We need to look at what we do from the perspective of what would happen if somebody else did it to us. (Applause.)

MR. GOLER: Are you suggesting we invited the 9/11 attack, sir?

REP. PAUL: I’m suggesting that we listen to the people who attacked us and the reason they did it, and they are delighted that we’re over there because Osama bin Laden has said, “I am glad you’re over on our sand because we can target you so much easier.” They have already now since that time — (bell rings) — have killed 3,400 of our men, and I don’t think it was necessary.

MR. GIULIANI: Wendell, may I comment on that? That’s really an extraordinary statement. That’s an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I’ve heard that before, and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th. (Applause, cheers.)

And I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn’t really mean that. (Applause.)

Rudy Giuliani is a stain of a human being. There, I said it. I know, I know, on paper he seems great. Pro-choice, he’s as pro-gay rights as any GOP candidate, pro gun control, the list goes on and on. But then the guy rips out things like this, appealing to the base emotions of voters instead of genuinely looking at the situation.

First off, what’s this business about having “lived through” the attacks? He wasn’t in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, or the field in Shanksville. He didn’t survive through 9/11 thanks his own bravery and perseverance. He was in the same city, and obviously damn glad he wasn’t killed, but he didn’t “live through” the attacks any more than I “live through” a traffic accident that happens behind me on the highway.

The tragic part of all this is that Giuliani’s comments received thunderous applause. He caters not to their rational minds as Ron Paul does, but their basest emotions and gut reactions. Ron Paul was correct, we need to look at historical precedents, look at what causes massive increases in anti-American sentiments, and figure out if increasing anti-American sentiment tenfold is really the best way to combat terrorism. Instead, we get Rudy reminding us that 9/11 was terrible and he was mayor at the time.

We found dead bodies littered about New York City as recently as this year, the International Association of Firefighters issued a letter accusing Giuliani of rushing the cleanup at the expense of pretty much everyone involved, and he assured everyone that the air was safe even though he knew it wasn’t, and those on the scene suffer the consequences. This gets passed over somehow. Moving along.

MR. GIULIANI: In the hypothetical that you gave me, which assumes that we know there’s going to be another attack and these people know about it, I would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to use every method they could think of. It shouldn’t be torture, but every method they can think of –

MR. HUME: Water-boarding?

MR. GIULIANI: — and I would — and I would — well, I’d say every method they could think of, and I would support them in doing that because I’ve seen what — (interrupted by applause) — I’ve seen what can happen when you make a mistake about this, and I don’t want to see another 3,000 people dead in New York or any place else.

Once again, 9/11. He won’t even say no to waterboarding. The point is to do everything that isn’t torture (without saying what that means), because keep in mind, he “lived through” the attacks and he knows what happens. Apparently nobody else is aware of 9/11 except Rudy, he and only he knows what happens when you make a mistake. Remember, the planes only hit in NYC. No Pentagon, nothing in Pennsylvania.

Try and mesh that statement with the above. Here he talks about “every method they could think of” to get information out of suspects because we’ve seen what happens: people die. Unfortunately, he completely ignores the other half of that, which is that remaining ignorant to the socio-political climate of the region and our role in terrorism creation, and we do have one, is a major reason that these attacks may occur down the road. He’s fine with torturing terrorism suspects, but apparently not with educating ourselves in how to avoid creating them.

Rudy Giuliani is as liberal as a GOP candidate gets on many issues, but he’s out of his mind as the debate showed. Every issue he can tie to 9/11, he’ll tie to 9/11. He didn’t do very much to keep the city safe beforehand or afterwards, but don’t forget, he was in the city at the time. He practically anoints himself with the blood of the 9/11 victims before each public appearance.

I don’t agree with Ron Paul, but I respect the man and he has a brain in his skull. Rudy Giuliani doesn’t, and his constant whoring of his presence in the city, and “presence” is all it was, when the attacks happened disgusts me, and this is why I will never, ever support the man.